Xylophone Feelings
by Frenchhornbook
Summary: Hermione and Luna start out a relationship in their fourth year based on a love of house elves and their friendship changes into something else as they get older. It may develop in a T rating, so that's why I marked it as such.
1. Muggle Music

"Curious creatures, house elves," Luna said in her normally high-pitched and inquisitive voice, sitting on the well-worn of the Grand Staircase leading to the Great Hall next to Hermione who was scribbling something on a roll of parchment she had balanced on her knees after a disappointing meeting with the kitchen elves.

"Hello, Luna."

"You don't understand them, do you?"

"I hardly understand people, Luna."

"Oh," she whispered as she stretches out her corduroy-clad legs, "you just have to simplify things. It seems to me that you are using a xylophone instead of a guitar."

"What?"

"It's a muggle song by Jaymay called 'Gray and Blue.' One of the lyrics is 'I feel so helpless now, my guitar is not around, and I'm struggling with the xylophone to make these feelings sound.' It's about—"

"Luna! Luna Lovegood? Can I speak with you a moment?" Professor Flitwick wobbled down the stairscase, his jacket tails trailing behind him as he interrupted the girls' conversation.

"What is bothering you, Professor?"

Hermione listened to their conversation about wrackspurts until they were out of earshot. What was that song that Luna had mentioned? Blue? Gray? Hermione did the only thing she knew how to do best when she didn't know the answer to something.

In the library, she found a worn chair in the Muggle Studies section where the only light came in from cracks between a tower of books that was stacked in front of a stained glass window that Hermione had never seen in its entirety. She searched through the index of a muggle encyclopedia, looking under any colors she could find. After the second set, she laid her head down on the windowsill in frustration.

"Her-minny?"

She turned around at the sound of a thick European accent to look right into the mystic eyes of none other than Viktor Krum. "Hello, Viktor."

"What are you doing with all of these Muggle Books, Herminny?"

She sat back up, with her shoulders straight, and shook her head a little to loosen her hair so that it fell in more flattering ways. "Well, I-" she ran her hands over her wrinkled skirt and thrust her chest forward "-was just trying to find a song that Luna had, um, mentioned to me."

"Luna, you say? The one they call Looney?"

"Yes, um, that's her."

"Don't worry your pretty, little head about it, darling," Krum whispered as he twisted a lock of Hermione's curls around his hairy finger.

"Well, I'm not worried about it. Just curious."

"One might say that you can be too curious."

Luna would say that there is no such thing. Hermione raised her eyebrows and stood up from her chair. "I shall see you later, Viktor." Hermione left without getting any books, a first for her.

**Okay, so that's the first chapter. Thank you to my two reviewers. (Second one, you were right, I did stop in the middle of a scene.) Next chapter should be up within two weeks. I know it's long, but I'm gonna be busy this week. Welcome Ron to the next chapter. Oh, and some drama. Please listen to Jaymay's Gray or Blue because she's awesome. And Damien Rice's "I Remember" while you're at it because that should come up in a few chapters.**


	2. Influential Invitations

**I don't own anything other than the clothes on my back. Please listen to Jaymay's "Gray or Blue" and Damien Rice's "I Remember" (It will come up in the next chapter). Thank you so much for reading and reviewing. So sorry this is taking so long. I shall try to put the next chapter (Yule Ball) up in this next week. Depends how much alone time I have…**

Hermione lay in bed crying after another day in which no one had asked her to the Yule Ball. After McGonnagal's dancing lesson, couples had scampered off, already paired off and ready to start quote-un-quote practicing. "Hermione! Hermione!" Ginny called from the bottom of the stairs, but all Hermione could do was sob louder. "Hermione! What's the matter? Oh!" Ginny threw the package she had been carrying onto Lavender's bed and knelt down at the head of Hermione's head. Ginny started humming as she wiped the tears from Hermione's eyes. "I feel so helpless now, my guitar is not around, and I'm struggling with the xylophone to make my feelings sound."

"Stop! Stop! Stop it!" Hermione sat straight up in bed. Grabbing a piece of parchment and the quill she always kept on her bedside table, she implored Ginny with her eyes.

"Um, I think it's called 'Gray and Blue.' My dad came across it in his studies, and I liked it." Ginny took the parchment from Hermione's tear-soaked hands and wrote it down. "Why does it matter?"

"It's just Luna. She was talking about it because I was frustrated about the house elves, but then she had to leave, and I tried to look it up, but I couldn't, and Viktor came over, and I left. Just—just, this—this week has been so frustrating!"

"Shh, Hermione. I'll just keep singing."

Viktor walked towards Hermione, parting in the sea of fangirls, as she marched out of the kitchens after another fruitless meeting with Winkie. "Herminny? Might I, uh, how do you say, have a word with you?"

She blushed at the European quiiditch star with his ill-formed feet and face that made up for any other physical deformity. "Yes, you may, how do you say, have a word with me."

"There is the, uh, dance coming up. As a champ-yun, I must choose a person with which to dance with all night or something like that."

In the corner of her eye, Hermione watched Harry and Ron as they trailed a group of Beauxbatons girls with their jaws hanging down around their knees.

"So, Hermy-nee, I was pondering… Did I use that word right?"

"Not exactly." Hermione shrugged, shifting her weight to her hip and relaxing against the banister. "But go on."

"I was pondering if you would go to said dance with me?"

"I would like to go to said dance with you."

Viktor took her hand and ran his rough, calloused thumb over her pale skin. "So then, I shall, as they say, see you at the dance—a rather pathetic expression if you ask me. Really! What if I see you before the dance? Then I have lied!"

Hermione raised her eyebrows and bit her lip. Nodding, she extracted her hand fromViktor's grip and started backing away.

"Goodbye, Her-minny. Until the dance!"

Someone reached out a hand from a moving throng of students passing by coming from the Great Hall—Ginny. She snatched the edge of Hermione's robe and pulled her off to the side into a dark alcove.

"Ginny?"

"Yeah, Hermione, it's me."

Ginny tapped Hermione's shoulders, pushing her down onto the ledge of the alcove. "Sit down. Trust me." Hermione squirmed on the cold stone, but found a wall to lean on and settled in. "Now, what was going on with you and Viktor Krum?"

"You saw that?"

"Yes, I may have been in the middle of a large group of people, but I'm not that short."

"Well, it was nothing, so if you'll just let me—" Hermione stood up to leave, but Ginny pushed her back down onto her seat.

"That was not just nothing."

"Yes, it was!"

"He was holding your _hand_. Viktor Krum does not just hold the _hand _of anyone. He _likes_ you."

"Oh, Ginny, stop fangirling. So he held my hand. No big deal. It was just a, um, casual hand hold between friends."

"Friends? Seriously? Last time I held hands with a friend, they did not smile warmly at me and rub their thumb over my skin."

"Well, it's um, a new thing."

"Hermione!" Ginny whined, hitting Hermione on the shoulder.

"Okay, fine! He asked me to the dance, okay?"

"Hermione!"

"Whatever, don't tell anyone. It's my own secret. I don't want the guys to bug me about it, and I don't know… Viktor is so other-worldly, and their so British. British guys are just so blasé."

"Blasé?"

"Never mind. I have to go." Ginny flailed her arms in the dark, trying to grab onto a part of Hermione, but she only felt air.

"Hermione!"

She took a deep breath, shaking her head and brushing her hair back behind her ear. Hords of students walked past her, none of them stopping her, no one knowing what had happened to her minutes ago. Then Neville stumbled into her path.

"Neville!"

"Oh, sorry, Hermione. I didn't mean to—"

"It's okay." Hermione took a deep breath. "It's okay." She smoothed down her skirt.

"That's a relief." He swallowed. "Actually, I was looking for you."

"Yes?"

"I wanted to ask you something."

"Yes?"

"Something about the ball."

"Yes?"

"Something about my date to the ball."

"Yes?"

"I know I'm not a champion, but I still want to go with a date."

"Yes?"

"A girl, preferably. Not that I'm against boys with boys or anything! It's just not for me."

"Yes?"

"Oh gosh, I'm sorry. I'm waiting your time. I'll just say it. Hermione, will you go to the Yule Ball with me?"

"Where is my guitar?" Hermione mumbled on her breath.

"What did you say?" Neville craned his neck towards her, bending down as he did so. Hermione sighed and stared at his feet. They were actually becoming normal-sized as he grew. It must have been that the rest of his body grew first. She shook her head to clear it.

"I can't. I'm sorry, Neville. It would have been nice, but I already have a date."

"Oh, I understand. Another date." He shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. "Don't worry, I've heard it before. You're not the only one."

"No, no, it's not like that." She finally looked up from his shoes. "He just asked me. I promise. I would love to go with a great guy like you, but I already made a commitment to him."

Neville looked into her eyes. He twisted his lips up like he was thinking and said, "Once you make a commitment, you stick with it. Like with the house elves. How is that going, by the way?"

"It's not so good. Sorry, Neville. I have to go. It's been, um, a weird day." Hermione bent her head and pushed past him, getting lost within a crowd of third-years running away from the dungeons. The mob moved towards the Great Hall, and so she followed them to the large, ornate doors, finally breaking from the pack once they split up into their various houses. She could not find any redheads at the Gryffindor table, nor any scar-faced boys nor any girls with muggle fetishes, so she grabbed a sandwich and left to go back to the Common Room.

"Why weren't you two at dinner?" She asked the boys as she climbed through the portal.

Ron hurled hurtful comments about her gender identity at her, so she bit her tongue at the idea of telling them about Viktor. She stormed off to bed and waited for Ginny to join her.

"Neville asked me to the Ball."

"That's wonderful, Ginny."

"Yeah. He's nice, right?"

"Incredibly so."

Ginny sighed at the sight of Hermione splayed out on her bed. "Do you want to see my dress?"

"Oh, yes."

Ginny ran down the stairs to get it, and Hermione started humming "Gray or Blue" to herself. She was nearing the end of the second verse when Ginny returned, waiting in the doorway until her friend finished the song.

"You have a very nice humming voice, Hermione."

"Oh, thanks. I've just been thinking about what Luna said to me about that son yesterday. I just can't find my guitar."

Ginny bit her lip in confusion, clutching the pink box she held in her hands closer to her chest? "Are you, um, ready to see my dress?"

"Yes."

She lifted the top off, revealing a box filled with satin the colors of a candy store. Hermione fingered the edge of the dress, a striped piping of sorts that was lotion on her skin. "Oh, Ginny, put it on." The ginger's eyes bugged out, but she swallowed and stood up from her chair as Hermione sighed while still holding the edge of the dress. "It's so…precious. How perfect for you."

Ginny blushed as she pulled off her pullover and slid out of her skirt. Hermione looked up from the dress to stare at the half-naked girl. There she was—freckled skin starting to get cold with goosebumps, red hair tickling her shoulders where her bra strap was starting to fall dangerously low. But Hermione envisioned someone else in her place—a girl with hair the color of the moon and a name to match who would probably jump at the chance to show off her Yule Ball dress and most likely twirl around in it after getting completely naked because her undergarments might damage the unique material of her dress. Oh my, what would Luna look like naked?

Hermione blinked. Ginny shrugged her shoulders in the dress that was a cure for any sweet tooth. The older girl reached out for her hands, sitting up and smiling. "Neville will love it. I love it. It's going to be amazing. The dance, the music, the dresses, the people. All of it." _I think I'm finding my guitar._

Ginny blushed some more and ran off after a quick goodbye. Hermione stared at the wardrobe where her own dress hung with Lavender's. She fell asleep with images of the twirling blond in her head.


	3. Bloody Ball

**I have no concept of time… It's a problem in trying to upload fics at a good rate. I have been reading a lot and have a really good idea for a Pansy/Luna fic… Two more chapters after this of Xylophone feelings.**

Bloody Ball

Hermione pondered the futility of relationships as Krum twirled her around on the floor. _You try so hard to make him like you, and then all he does is stare at you slack-jawed. The only guy staring at me will be leaving in a few months. The girl with the red hair is with Neville. Must not hate on Neville. It's not his fault Ginny likes him. Oh Merlin yes it is. And where is Luna? Where is the girl with the muggle songs? Where is the girl you seems to understand me in the most simple way—not in the way that Viktor understood me enough to like me enough to ask me to the dance or in the way that Ginny understood me enough to comfort me enough the other night, but in a way that told me she understood humans even though not all people let her get close enough to them so that she could understand them._

"Her-minny something is troubling you?"

"Is that a question," she snapped at him, yanking her hands away from him as the band finished another song.

"I am sorry. What is the matter?"

"We're gonna slow things down a bit now," the band announced from the stage they had taken over at the beginning of the ball in a semblance of childish teenage rebellion.

Hermione swallowed in an attempt to hide the frown that threatened to break free from her lips. Viktor slid his arm around her and pulled her so close that she had to rest her head on his shoulder to avoid a cranial collision. The song started out instrumentally, accented with the sound of Viktor's breath in Hermione's ear. "What are you thinking about, Her-minny?"

She sighed. Ron and Harry were seated at a table, not relaxing, more like avoiding death by boredom. "Is it them?" Viktor craned his neck to look at the table where sat the three Gryffindors and the awkward Ravenclaw who just came along to be with her sister whose side she rarely ever left whenever possible.

Hermione whispered, "How did you know?"

"She were, how do you saying, ogling them?"

"I think looking would be a better word." She smiled—the first real smile from whole of the entire night. The Englishwoman nestled her head into the hollow of Viktor's neck, a most beautiful neck that smelled like an exotic cologne that was becoming increasingly popular with the British boys as they observed the effect the Durmstrang boys had on the Hogwarts girls.

"But it is not just them. It is other people too."

_He's sounding more and more like Luna every minute. Next he's going to ask about the house elves with actual interest._

"How did you know?"

"If it were only them, you would keep staring at them, but because it is also other people, you have looked away to see them all at once in your mind for it is impossible to see them all at once in this room."

She exhaled into his neck, her lips brushing his skin as she lost consciousness of what her face was doing anymore what with the confusion of faking a smile here and there and laughing at any bad jokes that he told her. Hermione felt his lips on the nape of her neck where her curls swayed along with the music.

"It is alright to be…troubled, yes?"

"Yes, troubled."

Viktor pressed his lips to her skin again. She pulled away to look him in the eyes as the song ended. "Thank you for asking me to this ball, Viktor."

"It was my pleasure." He kissed her hand as she excused herself to take the seat that Parvati had just vacated. Harry greeted her in the normal way, if not a bit more tired-sounding than usual, but Ron lashed out at her with his words. His robes were falling off of his muscular frame even as he sat motionless in the chair.

He shot words at her, slamming her choice of date and accusing her of scandalous things that she only dreamed of when she was deep in sleep and no control over what images her brain conjured up. With one last reminder to call Viktor by his given name, she stormed off.

A young couple explored each other at the bottom of the stairs as Hermione ran up them despite the pain in her feet from her heels.

"Oh, hello, Hermione Granger."

"Luna?"

**Cliffhanger Thank you so much to everyone who is following this story. It means so much to me.**


	4. Terrible Tears

"Luna?"

"Yes?"

"What are you doing here?"

/luna shrugged, her dress moving with her. Ten layers of tulle surrounded her in a skirt and the top was made up of a plastic-looking fabric in a light pink shade that was almost white. "I was helping teary first years get back into the common room. They are not quite acquainted with the ways of the Eagle as of yet. It was a very tricky question too, and-Oh, Hermione! You've been crying!"

Hermione rushed past her on the stairs with a quick "Sorry," but Luna grabbed her wrist with her soft fingers. "Please let me go, Luna, I just need to get back to my bed, get this makeup off and-a" Hermione erupted into more sobs. She ran away, dragging the blonde with her, into a dark alcove that wasn't already occupied with snogging couples. The two girls sat down across from each other. Luna reached for Hermione's hand so that they formed a circle with their arms.

"What happened?"

"It's just the guys." Hermione sighed as Luna slid close enough to her so that she could lie her head on her shoulders, taking care to not muss the curls. "They are so frustrating. Not because of what they do but because of what they don't do. Am I making sense?"

"You always make sense, Miss. Granger." Luna stroked her head with those soft fingers. "'I feel so helpless now."

Hermione joined in, "My guitar is not around."

"You learned the song?" Luna turned her head towards Hermione. Her dress straps brushed against the brunette's shoulder and leaned further into her.

"Every line."

Luna breathed in-the sweet smell of Hermione's muggle perfume that reminded Luna of days spent outside of her home watching rabbits. "Then you'll know what line reminds me of this."

"What's th-" Hermione was silenced with a kiss. The kiss was better than anything she'd ever dreamed of when thinking of Krum or even Ron-it had all the romance of a priest saying "You may now kiss the bride" and all the force of a porn star. It made her forget what she was doing, and her tears stopped until the blonde pulled away.

Hermione mumbled," Are you too nervous to be lovers? Friendships ruined with just one kiss."

"I'm not too nervous to be lovers. Are you, Miss Granger?"

Hermione looked at her, really looked at her, observed her, took her in, witnessed her very presence, before she spoke. "Right now, I am." And the tears started again. Luna left her alone with a soft "goodbye."


	5. Efficacious Ending

**AN: The last chapter is finally here! I own NOTHING!**

"Finally, somewhere where muggles are nonexistent. I missed this feeling."

"What feeling, Ronald?"

Ron picked up Hugo much to the young boy's dismay. "Daddy, put me down." Ron ignored his son's pleas.

Out of the corner of her eye, Hermione caught sight of a head of blond curls. "Excuse me a minute," she mumbled to her husband and kids as they spun around in a game of Rocket Ship. "Luna!"

The slender lady turned away from her job of escorting first years onto the train to look at her long, lost love. "Hello, Hermione."

"Luna, oh, Merlin, am I glad to see you?" She grabbed the younger witch's hands in hers and shook her head in disbelief. "After the Battle, when we didn't talk, I felt terrible, and—"

"More terrible than you felt about every other day that we didn't talk after the Yule Ball?" Luna raised her eyebrows and grabbed an owl cage from a needy student who was juggling their books.

Hermione cleared her throat and stared off into the distance so that Luna could not see the tears start to form in her eyes. "I am so sorry. Merlin, I am! I was just "too nervous to be lovers," like the song says!"

"Did you ever notice, Hermione, that the song doesn't really have an ending? It just stops."

"Yeah, I guess so, but—"

"I had always like to think that the girl got her happy ending, but now I know the truth." Luna sighed and walked away from Hermione towards the more vacant area of the platform.

"This isn't the ending, Luna. This could be the middle, please! I remember that night and I remember how I felt, and I was confused and upset, but you made all of those feelings go away, if only for a minute."

"Obviously, a minute wasn't long enough."

"Luna, please! Please, listen to me! I've never seen you like this. You're so… so angry."

"I know. I'm angry because this is over. It was over a long time ago, anyway."

"It doesn't have to be over. I remember that night!"

Luna took a step away from Hermione. "There's a song by Damien Rice called "I Remember." It's all about him and his love and their tragic parting. Both of them remember their times together, but Damien sings about how he doesn't care about her anymore."

"Why? Why would he do that if he loved her? I love you, Luna, please!"

"Because it's not enough to remember, Hermione. You have to talk to the person and show them that you love them. You can't ignore them, get married to someone else, have children, and then expect everything to be okay!"

Hermione bit her lip, backing away from the angry girl in front of her.

Luna quoted the song that originally brought them together, "So go on, go on and take it, don't fake it, shake it."

Fin

**AN: Thank you to everyone for reading! I loved your reviews and encouragement. Keep being awesome!**


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